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A Week's Immersion in the
Isvarapratyabhijnakarika
By Marcy
Braverman
With several years of Sanskrit study behind me,
including training at the University of California, Santa Barbara,
and in India with Dr. B.N. Pandit, the esteemed scholar of Kashmir
Shaivism, I arrived at Shree Muktananda Ashram last summer for
Muktabodha's first week-long Sanskrit scriptural study course. Upon
my arrival, I had only a mere inkling of the treat that awaited me.
The topic of study was Utpaladeva's illustrious text
Isvarapratyabhijnakarika (Verses on the Recognition of God),
soon to be published by the Muktabodha Institute.
Along with
eleven other scholars from universities in the United States and
Canada, I embarked upon one of the most intensive, challenging, and
rewarding learning experiences of my graduate school career. The
skill and joy with which Professors Douglas Brooks and Paul
Muller-Ortega guided us through the philosophical and linguistic
complexities of the material truly provided a very special learning
environment.
Given that Utpaladeva's writing is just about
as rigorous and profound as a text can be, my prior Sanskrit
training served me well. This course also satisfied a yearning that
had been frustrated for several years: I longed for the opportunity
to live and breathe a Sanskrit philosophical text. For eight days
straight, Utpaladeva's text was our world. Not since I studied for
final exams in my first and second year Sanskrit courses had I
immersed myself so wholeheartedly in the world of Sanskrit
scriptural philosophy.
Our daily schedule was a flow of
sustained study. Every morning, our group met to translate a number
of the verses (karikas). Some afternoons after lunch, we went
straight to the library to review what we had learned. Other days
provided an alternate learning experience, for it happened that our
course coincided with a series of "Bhakti Satsangs" in the ashram.
These were informal gatherings after lunch where the ashram
community came together to share its wisdom in open discussions of
pertinent topics. At the final Bhakti Satsang, we had the
opportunity to share with the whole ashram the gems of what we had
discovered during the week. Standing up in this gathering to give
back to the community some of what I had learned was a priceless
moment. These satsangs were a wonderful complement to the intensive
textual study we did together mornings and evenings, too, for,
perhaps unbeknownst to our professors, we often worked into the late
hours of the night, diligently burying ourselves in Sanskrit
dictionaries. We worked well together in small groups to nurture
each other's wisdom and help stave off potential exhaustion.
During our morning sessions, each person had the opportunity
to read a verse and offer his or her translation and explanation.
Lively discussions were the norm, as several of us would inevitably
chime in to share insights about the meaning of these seemingly
esoteric verses. We fed off each other's enthusiasm, and the
professors contributed their guidance and wisdom. What we learned is
the foundation of the philosophical tenets of Kashmir Shaivism. We
delved into the Shaiva view of the power of the Self, as divine
Consciousness, to recognize itself. We discovered the core thesis of
the text: What seems to be external to divine Consciousness is
really internal; if it wasn't, these objects would not be able to
appear at all. In other words, when we look out into the world and
think that we are separate from it, we are mistaken. Everything is
necessarily part of Consciousness, or else it could not exist at
all. Our perceptions can exist only because our Consciousness makes
them possible. This means that we each have the power to create our
seemingly external realities because they are really just internal
to our own Consciousness. Similarly, our internal Consciousness is
not independently creating the external world, but is, rather,
itself an aspect of Consciousness creating itself.
In one
section, we worked through the minutiae of Utpaladeva's presentation
of a Buddhist critique of the notion of a permanent Self. And then
we assiduously studied the Shaiva refutation of the Buddhist
critique. By the end of the week, we had barely gotten through the
first of the four sections of this exceptional text!
Upon
completing this study of the Isvarapratyabhijnakarika, I knew
that I had been treated to something very special: rigorous study of
a most challenging philosophical text, with the best professors in
the field, in the company of highly motivated fellow graduate
students, amidst the wonderful ashram community. The atmosphere of
the ashram nurtured both the mind and the heart, inspiring a most
rewarding learning experience.
Upon
leaving, I knew exactly the extent of the treat I had
received.
Marcy
Braverman is a Ph.D. candidate in Religious Studies at the
University of California, at Santa Barbara.
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